Did testosterone cause the crash?
EmailHuge buzz this week about whether part of the reason for our economic mess is a lack of estrogen in the banking industry. (Click here to see my ‘Good Morning America’ segment, ‘Should Women Rule the World?’ from this morning’s broadcast).Nich Kristoff kicked it off with a terrific column, and the Brits have been debating the same point this week as their business titans have been hauled before parliment for a dressing down. A great Washington Post story offers plenty of outrage, and assertions from female politicians in London that things could have been different with a few more skirts in the place. Both cite interesting scientific research that suggest men are simply wired to take more risks. A great thing in business much of the time, but too much risk taking can also have catastrophic consequences. And banking, and investment banking, are still largely bastions of alpha-maledom, despite all of the terrific research we cite in our upcoming book that makes clear the more women at a company the more money it makes. We think there’s a good reason why Iceland, after suffering a humiliating crash, has put not only women in charge of the government but banks there as well. Check out my piece from GMA this morning for more detail. It’s on our site. And let us know what you think? Seems there could be a there there.
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No, this assertion is nonsense.
I know a lot of women who have taken stupid risks and lost investments because of it. Including some professional money managers.
I’m also female and far more conservative (and, I think, prudent) in my approach. Because of the economic downturn, I’ve also lost money — just not as much as my more risk-taking sisters.
It’s an easy thing to bash men (or women) when things go wrong and the people involved tend to be one sex or the other.
It may be more socially acceptable for men to exhibit this behavior, but I don’t think it has anything inherent to do with being male or female.
The economic problems were facing are too complex to be reduced to such an inane level.
Posted by: Alex | February 12, 2009, 1:42 pm 1:42 pm
Right, anything you don’t like about the world blame on men. Like “if women ruled the world, there’d be no wars”. Yada, yada, yada.
But what if women already ruled the world? I mean, they live longer, they commit suicide 4-5 times less, they die on the job about 10 times less, they’re some 3 times less likely to be the victim of a violent crime, and right on down the line. Seems like they have it pretty good.
Looking at all the men at the top ranks of business and politics, and saying men have all the power and money, would be like looking at all the slaves in the fields of the antebellum South and then saying blacks had all the cotton. Maybe men slave away in the trenches to make life better for women. Not that there’s much if any appreciation coming back the other way.
Surely anyone in the media, and thus concerned with where their advertising revenue is coming from, would know it is women who account for 80-85% of the discretionary spending in the economy, even though (as we constantly hear) women only make $0.75 for every dollar a man makes. So we get idiotic pandering like Shipman’s piece.
If the housing bubble is at the core of the current economic problems, it couldn’t have anything to do with women’s nesting proclivities, the fact they account for 95% of the purchasers of Better Homes and Gardens, viewers of Martha Stewart, etc. Men haven’t strip-malled the country because *we* like to shop.
Posted by: MartianBachelor | February 12, 2009, 2:42 pm 2:42 pm
I agree that more women in the higher up offices could have helped balance things out some! I don’t think it would have hurt!!
http://www.TheCommentDepot.com
Posted by: Dave | March 2, 2009, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
Isn’t it just as possible that the drive for bigger homes amongst working women cause them to make purchases beyond their means?
Posted by: jason | March 3, 2009, 11:50 am 11:50 am
What a surprise: the modern world is falling to pieces and somebody asserts that the problem is women don’t have enough power. This is despite the fact that women are much more likely to vote liberal, much more likely to push their husbands to buy a house, and much more likely to spend inordinate amounts of credit on clothes and other junk. And don’t forget, it is women who work jobs that in the public sector and don’t produce anything of economic value. Yeah, we need more women involved in the halls of power.
Posted by: Kevin | March 3, 2009, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Yeah, well. We only did it to try and pick up chicks.
Posted by: Lost My cookies | March 3, 2009, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
I don’t agree with any of this nonsense, but since we’re having fun:
Considering the U.S. has a low savings rate and spent its way into disaster, one might say the problem is women. Also, men don’t really want to take all that risk, they do it to get women.
Posted by: Sarcasm Rules | March 3, 2009, 3:22 pm 3:22 pm
Another possible cause or solution:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0225/1224241774267.html?via=mr
Have a nice day :)
Posted by: g.e.Taylor | March 3, 2009, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
For the most part, it wasn’t private businessmen that caused the problems. It was GOVERNMENT that caused the problems — specifically the Federal Reserve as well as the Community Reinvestment Act. (And sadly, females are more likely to vote for that kind of crap.)
And right now Obama’s socialistic rhetoric and spending are keeping the market depressed. Quit blaming businessmen when the government is multiplying problems with every intrusion it makes.
Posted by: Drew | March 4, 2009, 11:27 am 11:27 am
Let’s look at the economical issues, not whether it was one gender or other. many male CEO’s in power encharged with the issues that fell, could be blamed but and however, the economy is distressed and in trouble. It isn’t who is blame here guys, but what are we as the people going to do, what can we do, to get this economy back on track? It isn’t just affecting the banks, housing markets and employment now. It is affecting how each person being laid off, and their families state of exsistance, and emotional mind set. The news is full of horrors and the affects it has. We can place blame anywhere but blaming isn’t a solution. it only ads to the disharmony.
Posted by: Karol | March 10, 2009, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
Curiously, the sex-based stereotyping that feminists of a generation ago vehemently condemned is embraced by the women of Womenomics with unrestrained vigor — provided of course that it portrays women as specially gifted and specially virtuous and/or that it denigrates men. Call it by any other name, it is what it is: flagrant SEXISM.
Posted by: Larry | March 11, 2009, 9:19 pm 9:19 pm
Ancient People – Ancient Paths
Can humanity survive its’ current slide down?
Posted by: Storm | April 3, 2009, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm